Richard David Smyser became the founding editor of the in Oakridge, Tenn., in 1949 and retired from that position in 1993. Smyser served as president of both the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors Association. He was dedicated to increasing the employment of minorities in the field of journalism and to making publications more inclusive of minorities. As leader of the Minorities Committee of ASNE in the late 1970s, Smyser established the goal of bringing newspaper workforces into parity with the population of the United States by the year 2000. Oak Ridger The collection consists of correspondence, reports, lectures, pamphlets, clippings, notes, and other writings of journalist and newspaper editor Richard D. Smyser, chiefly pertaining to issues of minorities and journalism. The bulk of the material is from 1968-1982; during this time the Kerner Commission released its report detailing problems with employment of minorities in journalism. Smyser was dedicated to improving this situation and revisiting the report in ten years (1978), and he used his position as founding editor of the Oak Ridge, Tenn., to work towards his goals. A majority of the papers included derive from Smyser's activities with the professional organizations, especially the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) and the Associated Press Managing Editors Association (APME). Also included are materials from numerous conferences addressing the issue of minorities and journalism. Oak Ridger
